Mumbai-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat Express Runs Into Cattle, The Third Collision In A Month
A Vande Bharat Superfast Express travelling from Mumbai to Gandhinagar rammed into cattle near Atul station in Gujarat on Saturday morning.
The incident left the train's front panel damaged and also dented the underbelly equipment of its first coach.
"The train did not suffer any operational damage. It resumed further journey in 20 minutes," said Sumit Thakur, chief public relations officer of Western Railway, adding that all the passengers onboard the train were safe.
No damage to the train
"A cattle runover incident occurred with passing Vande Bharat train today near Atul in Mumbai Central division at 8.17 am. The train was on its journey from Mumbai Central to Gandhinagar. Following the incident, the train was detained for about 15 minutes," the Indian Railways said in a statement.
"There is no damage to the train, except damage on nose cone cover of front coach i.e Driver coach. The train is running smoothly. This will be attended to at the earliest," the statement added.
Third incident in a month
This is the third such incident involving this semi-high-speed train so far this month.
On October 6, four buffaloes were killed after being hit by this train on its way to Gandhinagar from Mumbai between Vatva and Maninagar railway stations in Gujarat.?
Its nose panel had to be replaced overnight due to the damage. In the second such incident that occurred on October 7, the train had hit a cow near Anand in Gujarat while on its way to Mumbai.
Case against cattle owners?
Following the first runover incident, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) had registered a case against the owners of buffaloes.
RPF inspector Pradeep Sharma said the FIR was filed under section 147 of the Railways Act, 1989, which deals with unauthorised entry into any part of a railway and misuse of its property.
The railway police have not yet been able to identify the owners of the buffaloes so far and efforts are on to do so, he said.
Minister acknowledges cattle problem?
After the two incidents, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav acknowledged the problems of cattle crossing the tracks.
"All railway tracks in the country are still on the ground, on the surface. The problem of cattle thus persists. However, trains are being designed to tackle such issues," Vaishnav said.
The indigenously designed and manufactured semi-high-speed train, the third service under the Vande Bharat series, was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 30 from Gandhinagar Capital and it started the commercial run from the next day.
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